Sands of Iwo Jima

This is how I celebrate Memorial/Duke day. Two birds. One stone.

Americans in particular hold this film in high esteem, but it is not as excellent as they try to make others imagine. Interesting indeed, but not in the same class as "They were expendable". Allan Dwan is one of Hollywood's great old craftsmen. He directed 125 motion pictures! - John Wayne gives one of the best performances of his career in this patriotic movie, for which he also received one of his few Oscar nominations -.

I never cared for macho movies

Yes, it's a cliche fest, but it's also John Wayne and some damn good battle scenes! For some of us that's more than enough.

"Sands of Iwo Jima" is a character study of Marine Sgt. John Stryker and Iwo Jima only servers as the location of the film's climactic conclusion. As with many heroic men in '50s movies, Stryker showed no emotion and coped with his problems by drinking large amounts of alcohol. This is a part of John Wayne's movie persona that I sure caused many young men who idolize him to have unhealthy relationships with alcohol.

Passes the time.

A nice tribute to the Marine Core that comes off a little lackluster at times.Even though John Wayne was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar award I did not particularly care for his performance in this film.

Serviceable war film with John Wayne at his most gung ho.

Crap. Some good ideas for interesting characters and situations here, but the execution is so ridiculous. Why the Duke got an Oscar nomination for this one we'll never know. Everybody's just delivering wooden one-liners all the time and the romance plot felt too tacked on to really add to the movie. Watch Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima & Flags of our Fathers double feature instead for a harrowing look into the psyche & background of the men fighting over that black rock.

As with most period films, this features a few moments of uncomfortable racism (i.e. "lemon-colored fellas"). But, for better or for worse, that does make it an authentic statement of the time.